- Title
- John Henry
- For
- chamber orchestra
- Year Composed
- 1940
- ARCO Number(s)
- 42
- Categories
- Chamber Orchestral
- Duration
- 4'
- Premiere
- World: New York, NY, March 5th, 1940 (CBS Radio Orchestra, cond. Howard Barlow)
- Commission Info
- Alan Lomax and the Columbia Broadcasting Company
- Publishing Status
- Not Published
- Versions
- John Henry (arr. full orchestra) (1952) (Arrangement)
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Program Note
Originally intended for radio broadcast on CBS' "School of the Air," John Henry was revised for high school orchestras. It is a programmatic piece about the American folk legend, a 19th Century black man, and his heroic battle in a contest against a railroad pile-driver. Copland wrote, "Knowing my audience was to be a young one, and that young people like their music exciting and not too long, I kept John Henry down to less than four minutes and called it "a descriptive fantasy." The music is meant to simulate the sounds of a train and John Henry's hammer.
- Author
- Vivian Perlis
- Year
- 1998